Manchester United are close to appointing Eva Olid as their new women's head coach, with talks understood to be very advanced and an announcement possible within 36 hours, according to multiple sources who spoke to the Guardian.

The 40-year-old Spaniard would replace Marc Skinner, who left the club on Monday August 3 after five years in charge. Skinner informed the playing squad of his departure in a meeting that morning, shortly before the news was made public.

Skinner's reign brought the club's first major trophy — the 2024 Women's FA Cup, the showpiece final of the domestic knockout competition — but his exit leaves United searching for a successor with the new Women's Super League season fast approaching. The WSL is England's top-flight women's football league, running roughly from September to May.

Olid arrives from Hearts, where she had been preparing to move on at the end of the 2025-26 season. Despite signing a two-year contract extension in 2023 and a further deal running to summer 2026 agreed in April 2025, the option to extend her stay in Edinburgh by an additional year was not triggered. She had led Hearts Women within sight of a historic league title, a remarkable achievement for a club that has long operated in the shadow of Scotland's established powers.

For United, the appeal is clear: a coach who has overperformed with limited resources and built a winning culture from scratch. For Olid, it is a step up to one of the best-resourced women's programmes in England, with the expectation that comes attached.

United captain Maya Le Tissier said her team would stick together and be ready for the new campaign despite the upheaval. On Tuesday, she and England teammate Ella Toone paid tribute to Skinner for his contribution over five years. Le Tissier also revealed that neither she nor Toone had been consulted on who the next head coach should be — a detail that may sting, given both players' centrality to the squad, but one that reflects how quickly United have moved to line up Olid once Skinner's departure was confirmed.

The handover, if completed within the reported timeframe, would give the new coach a matter of weeks to assess her squad before the WSL kicks off. Pre-season is already underway. Players are reporting for fitness work and early tactical sessions, and a new voice at the top will need to land quickly.

Olid's track record at Hearts suggests she is comfortable building something under pressure. Whether she can translate that to the demands of a club of United's stature, where anything short of competing at the very top is treated as underachievement, is the question that will define her tenure before a ball is even kicked.